1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to surgical instruments and, in various embodiments, to surgical cutting and fastening instruments for cutting and fastening tissue and organs such as vessels and the like.
2. Background
Surgical staplers have been used to simultaneously make a longitudinal incision in tissue and apply lines of staples on opposing sides of the incision. Such instruments commonly include a pair of cooperating jaw members that, if the instrument is intended for endoscopic or laparoscopic applications, are capable of passing through a cannula passageway. One of the jaw members receives a staple cartridge having at least two laterally spaced rows of staples. The other jaw member defines an anvil that has staple-forming pockets aligned with rows of unformed staples supported in the cartridge. Examples of such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,818, entitled “Surgical Stapling Instrument Having Separate Distinct Closing and Firing Systems”, issued Feb. 21, 2006, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Other surgical cutting and stapling instruments employ what is commonly referred to as a “disposable loading unit” or “DLU”. Such devices support a staple cartridge and a fresh knife in the form of a “unit” that is configured to be operably attached to the surgical stapling instrument. The units are designed to be discarded after the staples have been fired. Examples of such instruments are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,361 entitled “Surgical Stapling Apparatus”, issued Feb. 2, 1999, the entire disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference.
In use, a clinician is able to close the jaw members of the stapler upon tissue to position the tissue prior to firing. Once the clinician has determined that the jaw members are properly gripping tissue, the clinician can then fire the surgical stapler, thereby severing and stapling the tissue. The simultaneous severing and stapling avoids complications that may arise when performing such actions sequentially with different surgical tools that respectively only sever or staple.
Current methods of vascular transection employ one of the above-described endocutter devices to apply staples to achieve hemostasis. However, the staples punch through the vessel during their formation which thereby increases the possibility of a leak and also prolongs the healing time. Such leaks which emanate from the transection site can at times be difficult to locate.
Accordingly, there is a need for surgical staple cartridge arrangements that address many of the challenges discussed above.
The foregoing discussion is intended only to illustrate some of the shortcomings present in the field of the invention at the time, and should not be taken as a disavowal of claim scope.